1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer-assisted collection, organization, and presentation of medical information. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and computer program for collecting patient and administrative information from a plurality of sources and presenting the information according to various user-defined parameters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Doctors, nurses, and other care givers often work with a large number of patients and collect a significant amount of medical information relating to each patient. Such medical information may include, for example, laboratory test results, surgical procedure data, physician's notes, and medical images.
Computer programs and systems have been developed to assist in the collection and storage of patient medical information. For example, hospital information systems (HIS) are currently used by hospitals to store and retrieve information relating to the administrative and clinical aspects of the hospital's services. Furthermore, laboratory information systems and a hospital imaging systems assist caregivers in the management of laboratory data and medical images, respectively.
Prior art systems of managing medical information enable caregivers to store and retrieve information relating to a particular patient. Unfortunately, however, these systems suffer from various problems and limitations. For example, users must access two or more different systems to obtain the information created by each system, and are limited to retrieving and viewing information relating to a single patient at a time.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of collecting, organizing, and presenting patient information.